In recent years, there is an increasing need for assembling and manufacturing electric products by combining electronic components and the like using an automatic machine such as a robot. In such assembly of electric products or the like, for example, when incorporating an electric component having a lead wire in a circuit substrate, it is necessary to insert the lead wire into an insertion hole of the circuit substrate by an automatic machine such as a robot. However, if there is an abnormality such as a bend, a defect or the like in the lead wire, the lead wire cannot be inserted into the insertion hole of the circuit substrate.
With respect to such abnormality as deformation of the lead wire, for example, Patent Document 1 proposes a device which uses a lead wire recognition camera 15 for the lead wire of an electronic component 1, a substrate insertion hole recognition camera 16 and the like so as to correct the lead wire according to deviation or the like of the lead wire, so that the lead wire is inserted into the insertion hole of the substrate.
Further, Patent Document 2 proposes a device which moves, with respect to two beams crossing each other, so as to block the two beams from three different directions, thereby detecting the position of the lead wire.
However, in the device described in Patent Document 1, there is a problem that expensive cameras are used and advanced image processing is required, which is expensive and complicates the system. Further, in the device described in Patent Document 2, there is a problem that large number of movement operations are required for two beams and the detection time becomes longer, and therefore the cycle time of the assembly of electric products becomes longer.